ReviewJournal of cancer survivorship : research and practice2026
Effectiveness of pelvic floor rehabilitation in the prevention and treatment of postoperative bowel symptoms in patients with rectal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Review in Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThis study aimed to evaluate the effects of pelvic floor rehabilitation on the prevention and treatment of bowel symptoms in patients with rectal cancer.
methodsPubMed, Embase, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, and ProQuest were searched from inception to August 31, 2025. Eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating pelvic floor rehabilitation for the prevention or treatment of bowel symptoms were included. Risk of bias was evaluated using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool version 2, and the certainty of evidence was assessed with the GRADE approach. Statistical analyses were performed using RevMan 5.4.
resultsA total of 12 RCTs were included. For prevention, pelvic floor rehabilitation was associated with significantly lower Wexner incontinence scores at 1 month (MD - 2.78, 95% CI - 4.57 to - 0.98) and 6 months after surgery (MD - 3.26, 95% CI - 5.64 to - 0.89). However, no significant differences were observed at 3 or 12 months. Low anterior resection syndrome (LARS) scores likewise showed no significant difference at 3 months postoperatively. For treatment, pelvic floor rehabilitation significantly reduced Wexner incontinence scores (MD - 1.77, 95% CI - 2.40 to - 1.14) as well as LARS scores (MD - 4.07, 95% CI - 6.85 to - 1.29). According to the GRADE assessment, the certainty of evidence for both prevention and treatment ranged from low to very low.
conclusionsPelvic floor rehabilitation appears to be beneficial for the prevention and treatment of postoperative bowel symptoms. However, the certainty of the evidence remains low, and further high-quality RCTs are required. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: Pelvic floor rehabilitation appears to offer benefits in the prevention and treatment of postoperative bowel symptoms in patients with rectal cancer. However, the findings should be interpreted with caution due to potential bias, and further well-designed RCTs are required.
trial registrationThis review was registered with PROSPERO (Number: CRD420251117927)).
Indexed as
Identifiers
41863578What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.